1960s
1970 | Atomic head shot
Using an electron microscope, physicist Albert
Crewe takes the first photographs of individual atoms
(5/30/70, p. 524).
1970s
1971 | Gene transfer
Scientists successfully transfer genetic information from
one animal cell to another,
correcting a genetic deficiency ( 3/20/71, p. 193).
1966 | Moon landing
The Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft
makes the first soft landing
on the moon (2/19/66, p. 114).
1971 | DDT ousted
William Ruckelshaus,
Environmental Protection
Agency administrator,
announces the cancellation
of all uses of DDT (spraying
shown below) in the United
States (1/23/71, p. 63).
Engineering genes
in the 1970s, genetic engineering feats started to come rapid-fire. scientists were swapping genes between cells (3/20/71,
p. 193), making synthetic copies of genes that could function
in living creatures (9/1/73, p. 132) and learning to cut and
paste genes using chemical scissors called restriction enzymes
(3/20/76, p. 188). this quick progress raised hopes of new, better medicines, but also created fears of frankenbugs escaping
laboratories and introducing unstoppable diseases. in the face
of growing alarm, scientists met at a seaside california resort
in 1975 to agree on how to rein in their own research (right,
ideas for creating safer engineered organisms). a Science News
editor was there, detailing “this quiet piece of history” (3/8/75,
p. 148). the next year, the u.s. national institutes of health
issued formal guidelines on recombining genetic materials. any
slowdown was minimal, though, and in 1977 commercial genetic
engineering got a boost when the u.s. court of customs and
patent appeals ruled that companies could patent engineered
microorganisms (10/15/77, p. 247). — Erika Engelhaupt
1967 | Heart transplant
Christiaan Barnard in Cape
Town, South Africa, transplants a human heart into
Louis Washkansky (12/16/67,
p. 581; 1/6/68, p. 8).
1971 | Mars view
Mariner 9 orbits Mars, sending home pictures of a global
dust storm (11/20/71, p. 339).
1972 | Black hole sign
Studies of radio emissions
from Cygnus X- 1 support
claims that it is a black hole
(9/23/72, p. 197).
1973 | Synthetic gene
MIT scientists report the
first synthesis of a gene with
the potential to function
detectably within a living cell
(9/1/73, p. 132).
1967 | Pulsar
The first pulsar — stellar
objects emitting beams of
radiation that look from
Earth like pulses — is discovered (3/16/68, p. 255; 8/3/68,
p. 114; 10/12/68, p. 362). N
1972 | Nerve cells
MIT biophysicists propose
that nerve cell membranes
build up electrical charges
using protein channels
as gates for sodium ions
(7/1/72, p. 14).
1973 | CT scans
Godfrey Hounsfield reports
the use of computed tomog-
raphy scanning to create
cross-sectional X-ray images
of body tissues (9/1/73,
p. 134). N
1974 | Ozone hole
Researchers report evidence
that Freon and other chloro-
fluorocarbons destroy strato-
spheric ozone (9/21/74,
p. 180; 10/5/74, p. 212). N
1969 | Man on moon
Apollo 11 astronauts Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin
walk on the moon (7/26/69,
p. 71, 72, 75).
1969 | In vitro fertilization
Scientists report for the first
time test-tube fertilization
(shown above) of human
eggs (3/1/69, p. 209). N
1974 | J/psi particle
Two teams find a new
subatomic particle, now
known as the J/psi, providing evidence for the existence of the charmed quark
(11/23/74, p. 324; 11/30/74,
p. 340; 1/25/75, p. 58). N
1975 | Genetics limits
At a conference at Asilomar
in California, scientists for
the first time develop rules
restricting investigations in
the nascent field of genetic
